At home. Drawing pictures. Of mountain tops. With him on top. Lemon yellow sun. Arms raised in a V… Every Forte owner that handcuffed him with Jeremy Langford didn’t miss a beat this past weekend. And the owners that were able to snag him from the waiver wire were just as happy. With Matt Forte out with an MCL injury, Langford was given the start and as Eddie has said thousands of times over the years, “Jeremy spoke in class today”. He did so with 142 all purpose yards. He carried the ball 18 times for 72 yards and touchdown and caught 3 receptions for another 70. The touchdown was his third of the season. Forte has only two. On the season Forte is averaging 78 yards rushing and 27.3 yards receiving per game. His 548 yards on the ground on 136 carries comes to 4.03 yards per carry. Langford averaged 4 yards per carry on Monday night. Like I said, Matt Fore who? Ok, now maybe that’s a bit harsh. After all, coming into this game the Chargers defense was giving up 116 rushing yards per game. Only Cleveland had given up more. San Diego’s defense was also near the bottom with respect to receiving yards yielded to opposing running backs. Needless to say this is somewhat of an unfair sample. Nonetheless, it might make for an interesting situation in Chicago when Forte is ready to return.

So who else is going to join King Jeremy the Wicked in this week’s iteration of Who Are These Guys?

Matt Cassell – Cassel had a decent game Sunday night against the Eagles, completing 25 of 38 pass attempts for 299 yards. He threw 3 touchdowns and only 1 interception. Decent stats, but I have absolutely no interest. And neither should you. Even with the questions circulating of Tony Romo sitting the rest of the season if their playoff chances are slim, Cassel does nothing for me. He’s on this list cause he managed 24.66 points in his overtime game.

James Starks – I’m not sure if this should be about how pathetic Eddie Lacy has been or how Starks doesn’t really excite me. Last week James of House Starks was given an opportunity because Lacy has been terrible. Plus he fumbled and was dealing with a groin issue. Starks carried the ball ten times for 39 yards. One of those runs was a 15-yarder. That means he had 24 yards on his other 9 carries (2.6 ypc). Where he did shine was with his 6 receptions for 83 yards and a touchdown. I have no idea what we will see out of Starks as we move forward. How much Lacy plays is obviously the big factor. But even if they share the load, are you really going to want to start Starks? If you can grab him, grab him. And then trade him to the Lacy owner.

Cole Beasley – Unless your name is Gerrit Cole or Cole Hamels, I really don’t have much interest in you. Even if you did have an awesome game this week. Beasley caught 9 of 11 targets for 112 yards and 2 scores. Given his stat lines coming into this game, these results are certainly the outlier. I really don’t want any part of any of the Cowboys. McFadden might be the only guy I’d be interested in. I almost forgot about Cole Trickle.

Devin Funchess – Have you met his alter ego, David Boringcheckers? Here we have yet another player on today’s team that I have zero interest in owning. Three catches for 71 yards and a touchdown seem like numbers I can easily match on a weekly basis. Check mate.

Richard Rodgers – Rodgers to Rodgers. That’s when Aaron passes to Richard. Rodger that! Unsurprisingly I’m sure, here we have another player that will never find himself in my real fantasy lineup. “Real fantasy”. How’s that for an oxymoron. Rodgers saw a season high in targets (9), catching 5 of them for a whopping 19 yards. Why the hell is he on this list you ask? Two of those receptions were touchdowns. Damnit Rodger!Rodger Rodger.

Owen Daniels – Why not conclude today’s post with another player I don’t want on my team. He did have 6 catches for 102 yards and a touchdown, but I’m still going to have to take a pass. He’s done little to nothing the rest of the season and I’m pretty sure he won’t do much moving forward.

@friar: I’d probably make that trade. Hyde’s status is still an unknown. He’s supposed to be back after the bye, there’s no guarantee. And you don’t need to carry two tight ends. Cobb would be your best WR.

@malamoney: Thanks! I’ll offer up this trade and see if the other owner bites. I tend to agree with you on my RB situation, and also Hyde’s inability to fix the problem. With 14 teams and all the RB injuries, there aren’t many options out there to score a RB at less than exorbitant trade prices. Also, there are two other trade possibilities I’d love your opinion on (same league):

1) I’ve been offered Decker and CMike for Bennett and the Jets D. If I can’t get the first deal done, should I accept this one? Weirdly, I’m most hung up on parting with the Jets D. Normally I consider defenses next to worthless, but we have pretty generous D/ST scoring (includes 1 pt per tackle-for-loss and big point swings based on points allowed) and, in a 14 team league, it’s surprisingly hard to find a solid DEF play on waivers (currently, 19 D/STs are owned, with fierce competition each week for the top streaming options). Am I crazy if I turn down this deal just for a defense? Should I do the deal if I can simplify it to Decker for Bennett?

2) I’m thinking of offering up Gronk for Fitzgerald and Kelce. I don’t love giving up the best player in the deal, but my team is on the playoff bubble, and I wonder if I might be better off trading away some star power in order to cover my holes. I’d love to know if you think such a deal would be a good move and, if it is, should I do this deal instead of, or in addition to, one of the other two deals in which I’d trade away Bennett for a WR upgrade.

Nice work as always Malamoney. Interesting question I was asked about Langford and Forte’s value going forward. Do you see a time share upon Forte’s return?

The question led me to think, will Forte return and risk re-aggravating the injury? With the Bears potentially out of the playoff race if they lose a few more games, coupled with the fact that Forte is hitting the FA market this off-season. Obviously it’s a little early on the first part.

The second question that popped up is what’s Forte’s trade value for this season if any?

Sadly (because I am a Forte owner that does not own Langford), I do see a time share. Not an equal one, but one that detracts from Forte’s fantasy value. Although I need to see another game out of Langford against a reasonable defense to see what he really has when given the lead back role. I think we will see that this weekend against Rams.

Forte has to return. He has to show owners that he’s worth a big (relative) contract, but he’s not going to come back prematurely. I don’t think he stays in Chicago, so I don’t know that Chicago is going to be committed to him when he returns unless they are in the hunt and Langford is showing signs that he can’t pull Forte’s weight. But once they are out of it, I think all bets are likely off.

His trade value is in the crapper at the moment. He’s injured and has a young guy stepping into his shoes. I offered Forte and Jordan Matthews for Freeman this morning. No response yet, but I doubt he accepts.

@malamoney: Full disclosure I own Forte nowhere and scooped up Langford in a few places. Certainly we need to see a few more games out of Langford, because as you said San Diego is only bettered in creampuffness by the Browns and Saints. If he shows well against the Rams it could be a good barometer. The thing that strikes me is the eerie similarities between the two backs in style. Both good pass catchers, both have quickness, and burst to the outside. The difference is Forte is the better between the tackles runner at this point. A very interesting situation to watch nonetheless.

Good luck with the trade, scooping Freeman will be tough I’m sure. Unless the owner has major holes at WR and a wealth of options at RB.

ive got some difficult roster decisions to make. i picked up bortles as a bye week replacement for matt ryan. looking at bortles schedule the next 6 weeks it looks great (baltimore, ten, sd, ten, indy, atl, Nola).. i also have andrew luck in my IR slot if he ever comes back this year.

my only rbs are miller, freeman and forsett. the only handcuff i own is tevin coleman.

would you drop matt ryan for jay ajayi or javorius allen and handcuff miller or forsett?

i could drop vernon davis and c-mike too but i have a gut feeling one of those guys still hits, plus the DMC owner is my biggest competition and if dmc goes down that guys team would be crippled.

@malamoney: main TE is martellus bennet, but i have alshon jeffery too and i like to diversify my players if possible (not too many players on one team). i’ll just give you my whole team and hopefully it’ll help you or anyone else help me make a decision
qb’s-> bortles, maty ice, andrew luck
rb’s-> freeman, miller, forsett, c-mike, tevin coleman
wr’s-> alshon, dez, antonio brown, martavis, sammy watkins
te’s-> martellus, vernon
k->josh brown

i think that’s basically it. i tried trading martavis and sammy watkins before our trade deadline for rb depth (i play in a keeper league) but no one wanted sammy since hes so injury prone. i’m stacked at wr but i’m nervous about my rb depth. especially if lamar miller goes down since clearly miami is comitted to the run now and jay ajayi looked great, albeit on only 5 carries.

@Scooter G: I would make the first trade for Ingram. I would not give up Forte and Amari Cooper for Stewart and Marshall. I’d rather have Forte over Stewart and I’d rather have Cooper over Marshall. I “might” do Forte for West. But only because of Forte’s current injury condition and Langford’s existence…

@Nick: I can only offer my advice. We both know that I am not going to be right all the time. If I were, I’d be rich and famous in the fantasy world. Sometimes you have to go on what YOU believe. I am working on a new projections system and might try debuting some of its results in my post on Friday. Let’s see what it thinks of the two players for this week…

@malamoney: Interesting & all I can ask for is your honest advice & I appreciate it for sure! I personally think Davante Adams will be a crucial part of Green Bay’s success if they are to recover from those last 2 games & get on a nice win streak..Garcon has legit done zip this whole season, scoring a TD in games where he gets less than 30 yards & not scoring a TD when he gets 70+ yards…just a recipe for disaster in a shallow league like mine (10-team)..with that said, I ended up dropping David Cobb to make roster space for the trade that will process Saturday & kept Garcon as my 6th WR…seems excessive so I might dump him after this week of byes I have if he does not put together a good game against New Orleans…

Next question for ya, do you (1) keep Garcon at WR3 against a weak NO secondary this week & plug Jordan Matthews in at flex over Duke Johnson (have him in at the moment)….or (2) pull Garcon for Jordan Matthews as WR3 & leave Duke J at flex?

Let us now Praise Famous Death Dwarvessays:
November 13, 2015 at 6:11 am (link)

@malamoney: wow, you got lucky with that TD or this would look really ugly in hindsight.

in PPR start 2 RB/2 WR, 1 flex drop which of michael (if DMC looks this good michael’s upside when DMC gets injured is huge, with DAL’s line pretty much any NFL RB would be top 30 seemingly, and with usage more like top 15, similar to C.Johnson in ARI, remember what he looked like last 3 years before last 9 weeks? Or D.Freeman, what he looked like all of last year and first two weeks of this one)
Also .1 pt per return yard here so Landry is a really big deal (as i thought Spiller would be during draft, back when he was projected to do both punt and kick returns, since then he’s done neither)

Forte/Duke johnson/sims/j.white/c.michael/j.bell
Landry/Edelman/Crabtree/M.Jones
gates
which RB is the drop for a 1 week TE?

@Let us now Praise Famous Death Dwarves: The reason I changed my mind was because of McCoy’s injury concern. Unless you’re part of the teat staff, it’s next to impossible to know how “injured” a player really is and at what percent he will be at if he plays. It’s a freaking guessing game. Airing on the of caution I thought Williams was the “safer” play.

The drop is probably White. It sucks because everyone is hoping he picks up a big portion of Lewis’s slack. He will pick up some, but how much I don’t know. I am pretty sure that he won’t match his production, and there will be games where he disappears in favor of the Blount/Bolden show. It’s going to be a crapshoot week in and week out. Of course you will probably drop him and he will have a great week this week. But out of your RBs, he’s the low percentage play on a weekly basis…

Let us now Praise Famous Death Dwarvessays:
November 13, 2015 at 8:19 am (link)

@malamoney: both Jaywrong and ROS fantasy pros are all in agreement here. just gathering opinions. we should have enough evidence on mccoy’s shoulder thing to not worry about it anymore if he plays.